Chapter 49: Natural disaster!
The hurtling teorite incinerated the air in its wake, and even the Academy's soaring tower was reduced to ash by the sheer force of the heat wave.
The flas born from the violent friction gradually enveloped the enormous rock entirely, like a blazing sun plumting from the heavens.
【4th-Tier Magic: Falling Sun】
A hole was scorched open in the sky, and light poured down through it at a slant.
Viktor hung suspended in the air, gazing down at the Demon like a god overlooking the world below.
The Magic Power of a 4th-Tier Mage was sufficient to reach the level of a Natural Disaster—and that was precisely the origin of the Saint Mage title.
In truth, it was also another na for a 4th-Tier Mage, one that described the profound and fearso heights of their magical mastery.
"……A Calamity Mage."
Duke Livi stood on the ground, tilting his head back, the Falling Sun reflected in his eyes as he murmured.
His eyes snapped wide. The shock on his face hardened instantly into iron resolve.
"All units! Form defensive lines!"
At the order, the Mage Corps and the Knights assembled into a tight wall of bodies without a mont's hesitation.
Mage-soldiers and Mages murmured incantations, and a golden rampart gradually materialized, enclosing the students and Mages within.
The Knights crossed sword and shield. A white glow began to rise along the silver blades—a flash of blazing light, and in an instant, rows of white magic shields appeared, braced before them.
The teorite's descent unmade the heavens and shattered the earth. In an instant, flas erupted from the rubble all around them without cause, and the crushing force of the impact shattered everything in its path once more, utterly and completely.
The combined barrier erected by the Mage-soldiers and Knights shuddered violently, and every single person present felt searing heat travel from the soles of their feet straight up into their minds.
The sky's light was extinguished. A vast and deathly silence fell.
Sll, sound—in that mont, it was as though death had stripped them both away in an instant.
Only by the faint glow of the Falling Sun could people barely confirm that they had sohow survived beneath a spell that had unmade the sky and shattered the earth.
The teorite slamd into the Demon with savage force. The Demon's outer shell burst open instantly, its flesh sizzling and screaming—as though it had been plunged into the heart of a lava field.
"Ahhh—!!"
Imnse Magic Power—it distinguished neither friend nor foe.
The buildings near the Academy were swept up in the ferocious heat wave; the townhouses of the city vanished into nothing in the blink of an eye.
"What the hell! 4th-Tier Magic is this terrifying!"
"Viktor! You're the real Demon here!"
Every single person present was thinking the sa thing—but no one dared say it aloud.
The mont you opened your mouth, the heat wave poured in, and you felt as though your entire body was being incinerated.
The blinding glare faded. The barrier in front of them began to crack and dissolve.
Smoke and dust billowed in all directions.
"Well? Has the Demon been destroyed?"
"Under Magic of that magnitude, the Demon couldn't possibly have survived."
"Did we win!?"
Expressions of joy began to spread across people's faces. The feeling of having survived sothing unsurvivable left them exhilarated beyond words.
But as the layers of smoke slowly cleared, a massive black silhouette erged before them.
"Heh heh heh heh—"
"You lot—are nothing but maggots. Maggots!"
"What the—!?"
Those who heard the Demon's voice froze where they stood, utterly dumbstruck. They simply could not comprehend how the Demon had survived a spell of that scale.
"Sothing that terrifying, and it still won't die!"
Plunging from the heights of hope back into the depths of despair, people broke down in tears, unable to speak.
Despair no longer needed to spread from one person to another. It grew on its own, from within every heart present.
It was not the first ti a Demon had appeared before people's eyes. There had been many incidents in various places before—Demons attacking and harming humans.
But most Demons were the sort of vile, crawling things that beguiled humans and fed on the power of others.
In the minds of most, Demons were little more than particularly powerful beasts.
Yet the Demon standing before them now was sothing else entirely—
"Is there truly anyone who can defeat it?"
Duke Livi's expression was grave. Perhaps the only way to defeat this Demon was to have War Magic prepared in advance.
Viktor's 4th-Tier Magic just now, though powerful enough to rival a Natural Disaster, still fell short of the sheer terror War Magic commanded—at least by comparison.
And yet this Demon's strength was slowly dissipating. No one knew exactly when it would weaken to the point where even ordinary fighters could overpower it, but for the outco, that was still sothing.
If they could hold the Demon in place long enough and prepare a Magic Formation in advance for when it finally weakened—then perhaps……
While Duke Livi was still turning it over in his mind, a figure entered his line of sight.
It was Viktor.
He stood alone amid the ruins, facing that terrifying Demon.
His deep black coat swayed through the dust and wind, red markings flickering across it at intervals.
What was he trying to do?
"So it didn't die after all."
A dangerous light passed through Viktor's eyes.
In his gaze, a distinct red Health Bar floated above the hideous Demon's head.
To the right of the Health Bar, the Demon's level was displayed—Lv45.
Its level was not particularly high; its fearso strength ca entirely from its designation as a Boss unit.
The Demon's HP had already dropped below half, and it continued to decline—slowly, but steadily.
This ant the Demon before him was not as unscathed as everyone believed.
That it had held on this long was entirely due to the magical energy it had absorbed from the Academy's countless Mages earlier.
But!
Far from its peak.
Yem, as a mid-chapter Boss from the ga's Prologue, had ultimately lost against the players' assault—and that defeat owed more to narrative necessity than to any lack of power.
Demons, too, had their hierarchy of strength and weakness. The lowest among them were mindless, emotionless creatures.
But Yem had a na that rang out across the world.
Primordial Demon!
It was one of the most supre beings among Demonkind.
Its na—Greed.
Its strength was imnse, far exceeding the stats of the players who ca to challenge it at the ti.
And so, when players banded together to raid Yem as it occupied the Magic Imperial City, a great many NPCs would appear to lend their aid.
Among them—Gwen, a year and a half from now.
Viktor glanced back. The injured and unconscious Gwen had already been placed under his protection with a spell, beforehand.
A year and a half from now, Gwen would make her first appearance aiding players in combat—and with breathtaking power, she would slay Yem.
This Knight harbored a hatred for Demons that bordered on the absolute. She would have gladly killed every last Demon in existence.
The reason was simple enough.
That elder sister of Gwen's—never once seen by players—Kavra Delin, had died at the hands of the Demon of Greed.
If nothing had gone differently, the Demon Kavra had co to the Royal Capital to hunt was Yem.
And the ending that followed—went without saying.
The Demon once again spewed Black Ink from its maw, which gradually spread to engulf the entire Academy. In an instant, Tentacles began to erge from beneath the Black Ink, thrashing wildly.
This ti, unlike before, unrecognizable organs began to take shape along the Tentacles, giving off a sound that stirred the deepest greed within people's hearts.
The Mages watched the Demon unleash its power once more, and were seized by a full-body tremor. Many crumpled to the ground, begging for rcy.
Viktor was drawn by the Demon's movents. He faced Yem, standing motionless within the storm.
The demonic sound poured into his ears, and yet Viktor's heart remained as still as an undisturbed lake.
His lips parted softly:
"Weija."
"Got it!"
Weija was practically buzzing with excitent, feathers bristling outward as though they could barely contain her, eyes blazing with blue light.
Magic Power surged into Viktor's body like a spring flooding its banks, and he felt the force within him surge to a staggering intensity in an instant.
And compared to the last ti—even more violent!
Is it because Weija has recovered so of her power?
Viktor identified the source imdiately and pushed the thought aside.
From his body, countless gleaming red crystals flew outward—the drop crystals Gwen had collected from the magical beasts on his behalf earlier.
Now, they had their purpose.
One by one, the crystals embedded themselves into the ground, and an extraordinarily intricate red Formation materialized in the sky above.
The red crystals began to fracture and splinter, suspended in midair, refracting brilliant red light in every direction.
Red chains burst from the crystals at the corners, and between the chains, crystalline structures ford, gradually enveloping the Demon.
These dropped magical items amplified the power of Viktor's spells—not rely a simple boost to their force, but the ability to imbue them with a multitude of attribute effects.
Soon, Viktor's hands were gradually enveloped in Runes, and Magic Power surged continuously through them, channeling outward into the crystalline chains.
"Ten thousand evils bound and spent."
"An eternal prison—to fracture the mad god's mind."
……
With each line of Viktor's chant, the chains blazed with a blood-red light. In an instant, countless souls erupted from within them and drifted through the sky.
Anguish, resentnt, fury—flared from the Formation in one sudden, overwhelming wave.
Beneath the sky, crimson light exploded.
And with each line chanted, Viktor's stored Magic Power plumted sharply.
"What is Viktor trying to do!?"
The Mages present stared up at the blood-red souls streaking through the sky above, their hearts gripped with dread.
They jolted with sudden realization—the sensation of greed that had gripped their bodies had vanished entirely.
A red thread had appeared on each of their bodies, connecting them to the chains.
In that mont, every Mage felt a sense of deep foreboding.
He's using all of us as components of the Formation!
"Son of a—Viktor!"
Every Mage present was thinking the exact sa thing.
The Demon, too, was descending into frenzy. Its enormous maw finally swallowed even its own skull whole—and in the next instant it detonated, dissolving into a sky full of black droplets that corroded everything they touched.
Rubble dissolved. The air turned acrid with rot.
Even the overcast sky was half-eaten away by the corrosion—one patch clear, one patch dark, grotesque beyond description.
Viktor pinched his fingers together, words murmuring from his lips:
"The Seal of Binding Evil—close ranks, layer upon layer."
He swept both hands outward. The chains instantly grew agitated, links striking against the red crystals and ringing out with a crisp, clear sound.
The Demon's demonic sound was steadily suppressed—sealed completely within the chains. Imnse magical energy erupted from within.
White magical energy swallowed everything in the surrounding area in an instant, blanketing the sky. Like a nuclear detonation, it consud the entire Academy in a total, all-encompassing shroud.
Inside the white light, the Demon stared in disbelief, its eye blown wide, and cried out one final ti:
"You cannot kill ! Viktor! I will rember you!"
Because the Demon existed within a host body, even if it revealed its True Form, any lethal damage would simply transfer to the host instead.
But then, all at once……
Beneath a sky of pale white, it was as though a bridge had ford, linking Viktor and the Demon together.
In this strange space, the 2 of them could see only each other.
The Demon could not comprehend it—in this mont, the outside world seed frozen, as though ti itself had stopped.
Viktor had connected to the Demon's inner ntal world. He stood before it, his voice unhurried and flat as still water:
"Did you know, Yem—I have quite a way with Demons."
The Demon froze in an instant. In that single mont, it was as though countless shackles had seized control of its mind.
When soone spoke a Demon's true na aloud, the authority over the exchange would shift—from the Demon to the one who had spoken it.
And so, Yem had no choice but to accept Viktor's terms.
"Well then. You've caused enough chaos."
"Ti to get back to work, Heni."
The words had barely fallen when Yem felt the power deep within it begin to bleed away without cease.
It descended into panic, crying out at the top of its voice:
"No! No!"
"Little girl, don't leave ! I can help you take revenge! I can give you even more power—I can do so much more!"
"No……don't……"
Its pleas had not the slightest effect. Its massive body peeled away layer by layer, as though the flesh were being stripped from its bones, and Heni gradually erged from within.
Her amber-yellow eyes seed to shimr with the trace of tears. As though drained of every last drop of strength, she collapsed out of Yem's body and fell.
Like plumting from a height of ten thousand ters.
But the next instant, she landed in a pair of solid, steadying arms.
Heni wanted to hold on tight—even if only for this brief mont of clarity.
Schick—
White light erupted, as though tearing the very space around them apart. The raging forces that surrounded them sought to destroy everything within reach.
It swallowed Yem. It swallowed everything within its range.
The sounds around them seed to go completely silent.
Only a single voice remained, falling clearly into Viktor's ears.
"Professor."
"I missed you."
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